(3-26-26) Sharks-Blues Gameday Lineup

ST. LOUIS – The final verdict with Robert Thomas is that he is indeed out for the St. Louis Blues (29-30-11) on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks (32-31-6).

Blues coach Jim Montgomery was hopeful that Thomas, who departed in the third period of a 3-0 win against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday after getting slammed to the ice by Pierre-Luc Dubois, who received a match penalty for the incident, but the Blues center is not ready to go when the puck drops at 7 p.m.

“He’s still day to day from the incident the other night,” Montgomery said.

So there will be some line shuffling in the second matchup this month against the Sharks, and Dalibor Dvorsky will move into Thomas’ slot and center the top line with Dylan Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud.

“What an opportunity, right, and he’s just been getting better and better, and here’s an opportunity to play first-line minutes,” Montgomery said of Dvorsky.

So, Pius Suter will move into Dvorsky’s spot and center the third line with Otto Stenberg and Jonatan Berggren, and Nathan Walker, a healthy scratch the past five games and nine of the past 11, moves in on the fourth line with Alexey Toropchenko and Jack Finley.

Matthew Kessel, who hasn’t played since March 8 against the Anaheim Ducks, will slot in on defense for Justin Holl, and Joel Hofer, coming off a 22-save shutout on Tuesday, his sixth of the season, gets the nod again Thursday.

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The Blues and Sharks will face each other three times in March, with the final scheduled matchup on Monday in San Jose. St. Louis took a 3-2 overtime win in San Jose on March 6 despite getting just 14 shots on goal in that game.

“A team that works really hard, really good in the offensive zone, they work together as five-man units in every zone, well-coached team and they have a superstar that drives them,” Montgomery said of the Sharks. “[Macklin Celebrini’s] will to get to hard areas. He’s got amazing skill, everyone sees that with his shot, his cutbacks and everything. Kind of reminds me of [Jonathan] Toews with the way he goes to hard areas all the time.”

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The Blues put their 8-1-2 run on the line, 9-2-2 since the Olympic break. Just one point separated these two teams.

“It has been the goalies, number one, and I think our D-corps, number two,” Montgomery said. “They’re really skating, they’re really adding a lot to our offensive O-zone time in rushes and also how well they’ve been defending, and the penalty kill’s been excellent. That would be a third step.”

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Blues Projected Lineup:

Dylan Holloway-Dalibor Dvorsky-Jimmy Snuggerud

Jake Neighbours-Pavel Buchnevich-Jordan Kyrou

Otto Stenberg-Pius Suter-Jonatan Berggren

Alexey Toropchenko-Jack Finley-Nathan Walker

Philip Broberg-Logan Mailloux

Theo Lindstein-Colton Parayko

Cam Fowler-Matthew Kessel

Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Jonathan Drouin, Oskar Sundqvist and Justin Holl. Robert Thomas (upper body) and Tyler Tucker (lower body) remain out.

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Sharks Projected Lineup:

Igor Chernyshov-Macklin Celebrini-Will Smith

William Eklund-Alexander Wennberg-Collin Graf

Pavol Regenda-Michael Misa-Kiefer Sherwood

Barclay Goodrow-Zack Ostapchuk-Adam Gaudette

Dmitry Orlov-John Klingberg

Shakir Mukhamadullin-Mario Ferraro

Sam Dickinson-Vincent Desharnais

Yaroslav Askarov will start in goal; Alex Nedeljkovic will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Nick Leddy and Philipp Kurashev. Ryan Reaves (upper body) and Ty Dellandrea (lower body) are out; Tyler Toffoli (lower body) is a game-time decision.

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